Michel Pastoureau's lively study of stripes offers a unique and engaging perspective on the evolution of fashion, taste, and visual codes in Western culture. The Devil's Cloth begins with a medieval scandal. When the first Carmelites arrived in France from the Holy Land, the religious order required its members to wear striped habits, prompting turmoil and denunciations in the West that lasted fifty years until the order was forced to accept a quiet, solid color. The medieval eye found any surface in which a background could not be distinguished from a foreground disturbing. Thus, striped clothing was relegated to those on the margins or outside the social order -- jugglers and prostitutes, for example -- and in medieval paintings the devil himself is often depicted wearing stripes. The West has long continued to dress its slaves and servants, its crewmen and convicts in stripes. But in the last two centuries, stripes have also taken on new, positive meanings, connoting freedom, youth, playfulness, and pleasure. Witness the revolutionary stripes on the French and United States flags. In a wide-ranging discussion that touches on zebras, awnings, and pajamas, augmented by illustrative plates, the author shows us how stripes have become chic, and even, in the case of bankers' pin stripes, a symbol of taste and status. However, make the stripes too wide, and you have a gangster's suit -- the devil's cloth indeed!

Review&colon;

Pastoureau... is eminently qualified to explore the stripe's peculiar historical trajectory... The Devil's Cloth gets to the heart of matters like the way we perceive color and pattern, and speculates interestingly on whether these perceptions derive from nature or nurture... this playful but learned book will doubtless have an influence. -- Angeline Goreau The New York Times Book Review Reading about the epic implications of stripes... you feel like a child gleefully taking apart a toy, examining its small components one by one, then putting it back together. You've figured out how it works, how its parts relate to the whole. Only that toy is the entire history of the universe. What could be more empowering? New York Times (National edition) An oddball and charming little biography of a very devious pattern. Who knew that striped fabrics, now a kind of a shorthand for Class, were, from medieval times onward, so fraught with dangerous meaning? Esquire [An] intriguing little book. Library Journal The Devil's Cloth kept this reader at the edge of her seat. Seattle Times [A] unique little book. Forbes FYI Thinking of wearing that pinstriped suit for lunch with the boss? Or that fancy silk tie? Just be thankful that you didn't live a few hundred years ago, when a getup like that would not only have blown any chance for a raise but could very well have gotten you killed... It was this unlikely observation that prompted Mr. Pastoureau's book. -- Emily Eakin The New York Times

About the Author&colon;

Michel Pastoureau is a leading authority on medieval heraldry. He is the coauthor of The Bible and the Saints and Heraldry: An Introduction to a Noble Tradition.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:

The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism): Search Results

Book Description:Columbia University Press, 2001. Book Condition: New. Brand New, Unread Copy in Perfect Condition. A+ Customer Service! Summary: Preface Order and Disorder of the Stripe The Devil and His Striped Clothes (13th--16th Centuries) The Carmel Scandal Striped Fabric, Bad Fabric Saint Joseph's Breeches Plain, Striped, Patterned, Spotted The Figure and the Background: Heraldry and the Stripe From the Horizontal to the Vertical and Back (16th--19th Centuries) From the Diabolic to the Domestic From the Domestic to the Romantic The Revolutionary Stripe To Stripe and to Punish Stripes for the Present Time (19th--20th Centuries) Hygiene of the Stripe A World in Navy Blue and White Oddball Zebras Striped Surface, Dangerous Surface From the Trace to the Mark Bibliographic Orientation List of Illustrations About the Author Notes Index. Bookseller Inventory # ABE_book_new_0231123663

Book Description:Columbia University Press, United States, 2001. Hardback. Book Condition: New. 182 x 148 mm. Language: English Brand New Book. Michel Pastoureau s lively study of stripes offers a unique and engaging perspective on the evolution of fashion, taste, and visual codes in Western culture. The Devil s Cloth begins with a medieval scandal. When the first Carmelites arrived in France from the Holy Land, the religious order required its members to wear striped habits, prompting turmoil and denunciations in the West that lasted fifty years until the order was forced to accept a quiet, solid color. The medieval eye found any surface in which a background could not be distinguished from a foreground disturbing. Thus, striped clothing was relegated to those on the margins or outside the social order--jugglers and prostitutes, for example--and in medieval paintings the devil himself is often depicted wearing stripes. The West has long continued to dress its slaves and servants, its crewmen and convicts in stripes. But in the last two centuries, stripes have also taken on new, positive meanings, connoting freedom, youth, playfulness, and pleasure. Witness the revolutionary stripes on the French and United States flags. In a wide-ranging discussion that touches on zebras, awnings, and pajamas, augmented by illustrative plates, the author shows us how stripes have become chic, and even, in the case of bankers pin stripes, a symbol of taste and status. However, make the stripes too wide, and you have a gangster s suit--the devil s cloth indeed!. Bookseller Inventory # AAZ9780231123662

Book Description:2001. Hardcover. Book Condition: New. 147mm x 17mm x 187mm. Hardcover. Michel Pastoureau's lively study of stripes offers a unique and engaging perspective on the evolution of fashion, taste, and visual codes in Western culture."The Devil's Clo.Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. 160 pages. 0.268. Bookseller Inventory # 9780231123662